DA Music and Drama Teacher Elizabeth South (far right above) has advanced once more in the Ryan Seacrest "Let it Go" cover contest. To join the hundreds of Pre and Lower Schoolers and thousands of music fans across the country voting for Elizabeth's version, click here and vote up to once per day until Friday, when the seven finalists will be announced.

Aneil Mishra (DA parent and NCCU School of Business's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs) tweeted an interesting article - one that refers explicitly to MBA programs but may have something to say to us K-12 educators as well.

The article, published by Poets and Quants, describes emergent themes from 90 interviews with executives in North America and Asia. Many execs expressed frustration with the lack of contextual knowledge and collaborative skill they see in recent MBA graduates. A few examples:

“I’m amazed at the lack of sophistication that so many MBAs show about globalization and dealing in an increasingly global economy…They have no concept about the changes that are underway with a billion people here or there consuming and investing in ways that …

As are our students, I am often inspired by the quality of our language teachers. Click here to see the ice-storm-transcending dedication of our Chinese Teacher Joanne Shang. Or check out these two short videos:

Congratulations to DA Grandparent Robert Teer, honored by the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce with the Civic Honor Award. Given annually since 1933, the award is given to people who have made “extraordinary contributions” to the community.

Teer is the third generation of his family involved in contracting, building and development. Through the company founded by his grandfather he was involved in early Research Triangle Park construction. Since 1986, he’s been president of his own company, Durham-based Teer Associates, which has been involved in building projects including offices for IBM Corp, GlaxoSmithKline, United Therapeutics Corp. and Biogen Idec.

Click here to see the full article in this morning's Durham Herald. Click here to see a good bio of Mr. Teer from …

While I'm not sure whether to be inspired or alarmed about the implications, I feel lucky to know a Google Glass Explorer in person. DA 11th Grader Mark Cohen is one of the planet's few product testers for Google's bold optical head-mounted display project.

Mark and I recently chatted about Glass and its utility on and off campus. He loves the product - finding new uses for it every day. Click here to see a short video demonstration (with Mark showing on his iPhone what he sees in his right eye).

53 years ago this month, in 1961, President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps into existence. He had no idea he was going to change my life forever that day. But he did.

It was an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Attached is a picture of Tovata Dorm from Queen Victoria School. I was the dorm supervisor with two other teachers. Tovata was one of four dormitories at QVS. Queen Victoria School is located in a very rural area of the main island of Viti Levu in Fiji (no electricity, hot…

This picture came from Howard Lineberger, who teaches AP Environmental Science, Chemistry, Robotics, Geosciences and Engineering in the Upper School.

Among the students pictured are Cavaliers Samantha Baker, Abby Breitfeld and Vibha Puri. In the center: Dr. David Scott, Commander of the Apollo 15 mission. They met this week at the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, where the DA students have been building on their work with the MONS program.

Mars Outreach to North Carolina (MONS) is an initiative funded originally through the Student Science Enrichment Program (SSEP) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF). MONS is a collaboration between Durham Academy (DA), Durham Public Schools (DPS), and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT-K). The project is led by …

On Tuesday March 25, 2014 at 6:30 in Kenan Auditorium, we screened the documentary film that launched the year for our faculty and stirred good conversations about marriage, parenting, race, education, and the American Dream.

The following note arrived in my inbox this afternoon from our Athletic Director Steve Engebretsen. I feel his pain and love his resilience. Thanks to everyone for patience and flexibility of late. The forecast for tomorrow afternoon: 65 degrees and sunny.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

After shoveling snow from the sidewalks around Kirby Gym with help from the maintenance guys and basketball coaches Tim McKenna and Andy Pogach, so that DA could host the TISAC basketball tournament two days later than planned, and braving the roads like some of you to get to school, or home from school in February, I was actually looking forward to the hectic spring athletic season.

Well the athletic season is here, but not the spring part! I painted lines on Moylan Field while a still…

A half-dozen sophomores, a few of their teachers and I had lunch with Dr. Dan Porterfield, President of Franklin and Marshall University.

Not every day can we have such immediate and relaxed access to university presidents. But Elizabeth Everett (DA's Co-Director of College Counseling) made Dr. Porterfield and our students feel right at home. Over lasagna, they talked about the distinctions of a liberal arts education, the contemporary lives of university students, and the ways in which today's teenagers can most energtically "catapault" (a favorite word of Dr. Porterfield) themselves into leadership roles in the world.

As Dr. Porterfield puts it, "Liberal arts education is the single finest form of cultivating emerging human talent and character that this world has ever known."